Next Stop Chi Town


   Yesterday Tom and I once again made our way out to the bus stop

...and climbed onboard the COTA  ( the Columbus area transit company) bus

...to make our way downtown where we caught the Megabus to Chicago.

     Now, I don't ride the COTA bus often - the last time I took the bus was in September when we went to visit see Claire and Miguel (see 9/26/2014 post ) - but this time I was impressed by something that I hadn't noticed before when riding the city bus:  that when people exited the bus they called "Thank you" to the driver.  It was a little thing, but a nice thing, like holding the door (see post from  9/11/2014).  So I guess that's what we do in Columbus:  we hold the door and we say "thank you" to the driver when we exit the bus.
      On our way downtown we had to change buses once at the corner of Broad and Hamilton in Whitehall - where that really good thrift store is (see post from 12/9/2014) - and I got into a conversation with a woman who'd been on our bus and was changing at the same stop as we were.
     She was doing the bike & bus thing  - the COTA buses have a rack at the front of the bus to store a few bicycles - and I complemented her on riding her bike and keeping in shape.
     The woman, who was maybe a few years younger than me, told me that she was biking and busing because the engine of her car was shot and she couldn't yet afford to have it fixed.  She was on her way to work cleaning houses in Bexley, an affluent Columbus suburb close to downtown.
     She was friendly and upbeat in spite of her troubles and she took a photo of Tom and me at the bus stop.

     When our bus arrived, as we were boarding a young man who was walking down the street past the bus stop pointed to the bench and called, "Hey, is this y'all's bag?"
     Turned out that the biking lady had left her bag on the bus stop bench and the young man had alerted her.  She thanked him profusely.
     People are nice in Columbus.
     As they are in Chicago.
     We got off the Megabus at its stop in front of Union Station and from there we walked to the Clinton Street elevated train which took us to our destination, the Western Avenue stop in Bucktown.
      To get from the train platform at Western down to the street one has to descend three sets of stairs.  When I got off train I was all disorganized, fumbling with my suitcase, purse, gloves, scarf and hat.  Tom didn't realize I was lagging behind fumbling  on the platform, so he moved ahead of me in the crowd and down the staircase, assuming I was right behind him, but I wasn't.  When I finally got from the platform to the the top of the stairs I stopped to try and try to get my stuff together while the crowd passed by me.  But during the half-minute I stood at the top of the stairs organizing myself four different young people stopped to ask if they could help me or carry my suitcase down the stairs.  
    So I say Chicago people are nice, too.
     We walked from the train station to Claire and Miguel's house in Bucktown to pick them up and from there we walked to the nearby IHSP hostel, our perennial choice of lodgings when visiting Chicago (see posts from  9/26/2014 and  12/21/2013).

The front desk

Our room.

    After Tom and  I checked in at the IHSP we walked to a new neighborhood burger restaurant Claire and Miguel had been wanting to check out called Umami Burgers.

Claire and Miguel at Umami Burger

    The burgers were really good, made with ground steak and cooked medium rare.

I had a burger with carmelized truffle sauce and garlic aioli.  Was it good?  Ohhhh yes! 

Vegetarian Claire had a veggie burger, also very good

     In place of fries Tom ordered as a side the Boring Salad,

which wasn't at all boring.

     
     After our burgers we all had a hankering for dessert so we walked to nearby Stan's donuts:

    ...where we feasted on raspberry bismark, coconut cream, chocolate turtle, chocolate bismark, sour cream and glazed doughnuts.

     Our doughnut jones satisfied, we said good night to Claire and Miguel who headed home while we walked back to our hostel

where, as usual, the cheerful day room was full of friendly international students who were also staying at the hostel. 

    Except for the disreputable WIFI, this is a really nice place.